S49.E16: Kristen Wiig / Raye

[Trini]

Host: Kristen Wiig

Musical Guest: Raye

Airdate: April 6, 2024

 

 

[ebk57]

Are we getting a celebrity cameo in every sketch tonight?

[Andyourlittledog2]

35 minutes ago, ebk57 said:

Are we getting a celebrity cameo in every sketch tonight?

I am so sick of cameos I can't even express my dismay at tonight's show.  I wasn't expecting to like tonight's show because I never liked a single character Wiig ever did but the freakin' neverending cameos pushed it right over the top. What a disappointment.

For the love of mike stop all these cameos.

[Galileo908]

Oh thank goodness, someone already made a thread.

Cold Open: Oh thank god, a nonpolitical cold open. JAJ was playing Ernie Johnson, so no risk of a Trump cameo. Apparently no one is interested in March Madness this year, not even the women's coaches.

Monologue: Band mentioned! And here come the Five Timers cameos...mostly Paul Rudd. Loved the big pop for Paula Pell, and liked how Matt Damon, Martin Short, Will Forte, Fred Armisen, and Jon Hamm all cheated to get Five Timers jackets. But yeah, it doesn't seem that special anymore. I do like how this was about how self-aware they are for pretty much giving those jackets to anyone these days. And well, I wanted more of anyone else to host again. Criminal that Jon Hamm last hosted in 2010. Completely forgot that Ryan Gosling was hosting NEXT week, so this was fun timing for him to show up here.

Ticket to Ride: Okay, I was already sold on this when they brought out Ticket to Ride and Kristen was NOT having it, but the reason was because she was afraid of getting Jumanji'd was the best capper. And right when I was thinking "this would be 100x better if Will Forte was in this," he shows up! I could've easily seen him in Dismukes's part, but I'll take the Robin Williams type Jumanji prisoner.

Pilates: Pilates horror movie, this was a fun one.

Secretaries: Jon Hamm in a sketch! I love 60s humor. And of course Kristen Wiig is another secretary with Trudy. So dumb in a fun way, especially when it literally fell apart at the end.

Retirement Party: Oh, we're getting the rest of the Five Timers cameos in this one. Big pop for Fred Armisen because no one recognized Paul Rudd in the improv troupe. And somehow Will Forte was the best part of the sketch, in a parade of great cameos.

Oh man, of all the sketches to get a sequel, I wasn't expecting THIS one. 

WU: I was driving when the earthquake hit, I honestly thought it was a big gust of wind that rattled my car around. I got a big laugh out of Marcello showing up as the Earthquake. And then Kenan showed up as the Eclipse and they pretty much cut a Wrestlemania promo.

Got a kick out of Che saying "Ancient Skank."

Kristen said on Conan's podcast that her favorite character is Aunt Linda, so it was good to see her again.

Go Karts: The moment the parents dropped "bad thing" they were gonna get divorced. The reveal of Troast as the birthday girl was fun. I just liked the escalating tension in this.

Sonic Pioneers: I appreciate the 4:3 aspect ratio. Troast showing off her vocal range by contracting emphysema on air was my favorite bit.

Now, I'm usually not a big fan of Kristen Wiig, or excessive cameos, but I felt like this show was on fire. There was just a big infectious energy that powered the whole show. I was honestly sad we got a "not enough time for another sketch" bit with the band, that's how much I liked this one!

[JeanJean]

I thought "Pilates" was very funny. And I liked the bad news sketch.

Aside from that, I though it was good energy that carried the show.

I have a new template for next season: Pedro Pascale, Ryan Gosling, and dogs. That's all.

[MrWhyt]

Johnny Hamms!!

Really enjoyed this episode even though i think a little Kristen Wiig goes a long ways. WU killed and the cut to the birthday girl got probably the biggest laugh out of me tonight. Loved the joke of "everybody gets a 5 timer jacket" even extending to the whole cast wearing one at the good nights.

[Irlandesa]

The only cameo I was hoping against hope of getting was Kristen's co-star from Palm Royale, Carol Burnett. 

Oh well.  The show did have some good energy.  I liked the "bad thing" and the pilates sketch but the only thing that really stood out to me was the earthquake and eclipse battling.  For some reason I really liked that one.

I am not familiar with the singer but I liked her.

[baldryanr]

So for those who have been yearning for a non-political cold opening, did this one do it for you?  I thought it sucked.  Yeah, Charles and Kenny aren't college BB guys, the women have been more exciting (or at the very least have bigger name stars), and Kim Mulkey dresses like a flamingo. 

[Pete Martell]

I wasn't sure what to expect with another Wiig episode, because while she's always professional, on a number of her appearances she's brought back the same characters (Secret Word, Surprise Sue), and sometimes struggles with how to fit into the casts of the time. Hearing that the episode was going to be full of cameos made me even more unsure, as I wondered if it would be like Will Forte's episode, where he felt much more comfortable with people of his era (like Kristen and Kenan) than anyone else. 

Fortunately, the cameos were mostly left to the overcrowded monologue (I'm glad they still got the Paula Pell appearance - I always enjoyed when she would pop up for audience questions) and a few other sketches. None of them got in the way of the sketches for me (although I would have cut Matt Damon out - he was funny in his previous appearances but tonight he just seemed like he was walking by the building, and they pulled him in). 

There were several sketches like Jumanji and the go-karts sketch that reminded me of the more down-to-earth, character-based material she had in her first few seasons as a cast member. The go-kart sketch could have been punched up a little, but I thought Andrew/Chloe Troast/JAJ/Kristen all had a good rapport and I liked the building confusion and pain, and that we never heard them tell the kids the news. I loved the intense shouting between Andrew and Kristen in the Jumanji sketch and how well most of the sketch built. The Will Forte cameo mostly worked, even if the end didn't.

We still got the "wacky" material, like in that Heidi sketch, but as it was not as present as I was expecting. And I ended up enjoying one of the wacky sketches I thought I'd hate (the French variety show), as it had a good energy and used the cast well and had one of those "wacky" Kristen character types that I enjoy (a dip into Triangle Sally). JAJ and Dismukes, Chloe Troast, were very good for me, the frantic dancing with Chloe Fineman and Bowen. And Mikey as the mime was some of his best work in a year or two. This originally was cut from the Timothee Chalamet episode earlier this season and apparently focused more heavily on Chloe Fineman. If true, I'm glad she was willing to change this to being more of an updated version of the old Deep House Dish/Soul Train sketches, because it was a sense of fun we don't get that often now.

The retirement party sketch was also an updated version of an old sketch, one that wasn't quite the same without Jason Sudeikis and Bobby Moynihan, but it still worked well enough for me. More than anything I was curious to see if Will could still play nasty old Hamilton Whiteman, and he could. I didn't realize just how well I knew those Hamilton sketches until I saw the very first second of this one and said to myself, "It's going to have Hamilton."

Overall, I thought this was the best episode Kristen has hosted, and one of the best two or three episodes so far this season. I hope they use it as a possible path forward for the show in its current state rather than some of the other recent attempts at knowing where to go.

I do feel bad for Michael Longfellow - I don't know what happened there or has happened all season.

There will probably be more detailed dress reports up later today, but for now, here's what I took down from the Saturday Night Network podcast last night:

Good Morning Buffalo - Sarah and Kristen are news anchors reporting on their bender. JAJ makes fun of them for breaking into Derek Jeter's house. Longfellow interviews a cop (Molly) about them. Kenan is an "emo Jimmy Butler" weatherman Sarah and Kristen had a threeway with. Apparently this was good?

PDD - Grinke (?) whispers to Kristen what sketches she should do and dances. One by one PDD, besides John, get into the dancing. It dances on the Update desk beside Colin at the end. There were some reports that this was bad enough to where the audience was just silent.

Funeral - Kristen mourns her husband and plays his favorite music. The mourners head bob and dance. She reminds the mourners it's a funeral. Longfellow is the son. Mikey, Heidi, Bowen, Ego, Marcello are mourners. Kenan is the body coming to life due to the music. JAJ part of the staff. Molly and Punkie have funerals next door.

Train Ride - Kristen does a call on the speaker with her doctor, much to Kenan's dismay. Devon tells Kenan he can't leave his seat, even appearing outside the train. Sketch ends when Kenan leaves it and breaks the fourth wall.

Book club - (also cut from Molly Shannon's episode) - Bowen is a nuisance to a book club, featuring Kristen, Ego, Molly, Heidi.

They also reran the Red Flag fake ad from back in the day.

4 minutes ago, baldryanr said:

So for those who have been yearning for a non-political cold opening, did this one do it for you?  I thought it sucked.  Yeah, Charles and Kenny aren't college BB guys, the women have been more exciting (or at the very least have bigger name stars), and Kim Mulkey dresses like a flamingo. 

It seems like the only time we get non-political cold opens are if they involve sports. I don't know anything about them other than all the people arguing about Caitlin Clark or Angel Reese. It didn't seem like the show had any real point beyond "we love women's college basketball," maybe because they just wanted to address the people who believe the show has a negative view of women in basketball. 

I would have rather seen a different topic, but at least it's not politics I guess. 

The performances were fine, but I think the only part I enjoyed was when Heidi wandered out too early so she could join in on the LFNY.

Given that Fred and Kristen were there, I'm half-surprised they didn't revive Dooneese, but maybe they thought that wasn't right for 2024.

[nickp1991]

The Kim Mulkey impression is hilarious!!

[potatoradio]

11 hours ago, Andyourlittledog2 said:

I am so sick of cameos I can't even express my dismay at tonight's show.

Took the words right out of my mouth. Not only am I sick and tired of cameos, my grouchy arse is sick and tired of the audience having kittens at the sight of said cameo. Ugggggggggh. How about we just line up all the cameos on stage, then have a two-minute fever dream-hysteria fit for the audience, and be done with it? 

That said, when Kristen Wiig just gets back to being funny in a sketch, she's really freaking good and elevates the entire thing. But, rarely can she just be a funny comedy actress. Most of the time she's KRISTEN F*CKING WIIG, B*TCH! 

Pilates was really funny. And, wow, pigs are flying somewhere because the musical guest could SING and I didn't mind listening to her. 

[peeayebee]

Overall, I thought this was pretty good.

6 hours ago, Pete Martell said:

It didn't seem like the show had any real point beyond "we love women's college basketball

Yeah, there wasn't really much to this sketch. Plus since I don't follow sports, it didn't appeal to me.

When Kristen was talking to the band and then said, "Lenny on sax, how are you doing?" when he said, "I'm ok," I cracked up. 

I'm not a big fan of cameos, but I have to said I love every single one of the guys who cameoed, so I was fine with this. I esp loved the interaction that Jon Hamm and Martin Short had with Lorne. All these guys are funny.

I wasn't really feeling the Jumanji/dinner party sketch until Andrew was debating Kristen about Jumanji. That was great. I did have a fear that this would end with Kristen being right, so of course that happened. However, I did love seeing Will Forte appear. (And I miss The Last Man on Earth.)

The pilates sketch caught me off-guard. Obviously pilates has been popular for a long time, but is there something new about it? Was it the machine they referenced? 

I liked Kristen as the old-fashioned secretary more than Heidi. But I didn't particularly like this.

Loved the retirement party, esp Fred Armisen, Kristen, and Will Forte. 

I really liked Marcello as the NY earthquake. I also liked, when Aunt Linda was there, when Che spoke up and she said, "Where di you come from?"

The go-carts sketch was very good. 

I liked the Sonic Pioneers/French variety show sketch, but I would have loved it if there was more French spoken. That amused me more than the dancing.

The musical guest was fine. At least I didn't FF thru the performances. 

[Pete Martell]

A more detailed dress report:

I forgot the pre-tape soon after it aired, but Kaia Gerber has a number of SNL ties - her mother (Cindy Crawford) did a cameo in 1994, she dated Pete Davidson, and she is playing Jacqueline Carlin in the upcoming SNL 1975 movie. Carlin was with Chevy Chase at the time (they later married - for a few years), and she starred in the show's very first pre-tape (the replacement dad commercial with Dan Aykroyd being replaced by Chevy Chase).

[SomeTameGazelle]

4 hours ago, peeayebee said:

I wasn't really feeling the Jumanji/dinner party sketch until Andrew was debating Kristen about Jumanji. 

I especially enjoyed the part where Bowen and Chloe got into it over the different movie versions as well.

5 hours ago, peeayebee said:

 

I liked Kristen as the old-fashioned secretary more than Heidi. But I didn't particularly like this.

I remembered disliking the original version so after a little bit I decided to FF over some of it. I did laugh at the exchange "I must admit that the sight of you with no bottoms is--" "Making you forget that there's a baby in my desk?" 

This was one of those episodes where it felt like a lot of different castmembers had something to do and did it pretty well. 

[NeenerNeener]

I just realized there was no "Please Don't Destroy" sketch; at least I didn't see one. Maybe that's why I enjoyed this episode.

[Pete Martell]

3 minutes ago, NeenerNeener said:

I just realized there was no "Please Don't Destroy" sketch; at least I didn't see one. Maybe that's why I enjoyed this episode.

The dress rehearsal reports mentioned one that was cut. Apparently it was not good. I feel like they've hit a wall this season as the one last week I thought was genuinely poor.

[heatherchandler]

6 hours ago, peeayebee said:

I esp loved the interaction that Jon Hamm and Martin Short had with Lorne. All these guys are funny.

I laughed out loud for real when Martin told off Jon.  I love Martin and everything he does.

[Joimiaroxeu]

Cold Open: why were all of the March Madness sportscasters bald? DID SNL get a deal on bald caps or something?

Ugh, the symbiotic relationship between college and pro sports and online gambling is no joke.

I remember when KW used to eat this show when she in the cast so I had mixed feelings about her hosting again.

Matt Damon! Ryan Gosling! So where was Alec Baldwin?

Jumanji'd in or Jumanji'd out? Decisions, decisions.

Pilates is a horror cult that's apparently adjacent to a version of the sunken place. Good to know.

Bourbon on the racks. Go banoodles on that dog ass ho. I love the Bizarro world Mad Men.

Dang, Retirement Jerry's co-workers went hard. Matt Damon from The Legend of Bagger Vance drank the dead chinchilla remains. When Will Forte first showed up I thought he was Justin Timberlake until he started talking.

I was unfamiliar with RAYE but I liked her style. Great stage presence. Kind of an updated Amy Winehouse.

WU:
Still too soon on the Key Bridge jokes, SNL.
Behold the power of the New York earthquake! Solar eclipse: hold my beer. The only thing NYC needs now is frogs falling from the sky and a swarm of locusts.
Oof, that Jane Goodall joke. But are gorillas carnivores?
How was Aunt Linda going to be ragging on the Barbie movir while wearing a pink jacket?
Nopenheimer.

Go-carts of impending doom. Wait, we didn't get to hear what the bad thing was!

Huh, did RAYE throw a tiny bit of shade at Amy Winehouse during her second performance? Wonder if she was feeling a way about the AW biopic opening this week without her in it.

La Maison du Bang. Kristen's dancing character almost seemed like Celine Dion but without the singing. Irreconcilable murder.

Sign off: I didn't realize how tall Ryan Gosling is. Kristen didn't seem into hugging certain people. Hmm.

Not the worst episode. At least KW held back on doing all her old characters. Mostly. Looking forward to Ryan Gosling hosting next week.

[peeayebee]

9 hours ago, Joimiaroxeu said:

Huh, did RAYE throw a tiny bit of shade at Amy Winehouse during her second performance?

What happened?

[Joimiaroxeu]

Near the end of the performance RAYE sang an allusion to drinking too much and dying with a fist full of pills. Amy Winehouse died of alcohol poisoning and was known to have a crack habit. Maybe I read too much into it but it seemed to me like RAYE was saying she wasn't going to go out like Amy Winehouse did.

[Milburn Stone]

I loved this episode!! And what's more, I loved Kristen Wiig more than I ever have. in my entire life! She really is a treasure, when not being used and re-used in done-to-death character sketches.

[proserpina65]

That really was not funny from beginning to end.  Worst episode of the season so far, and that's saying a lot.  Even Weekend Update let me down.  Also I didn't know who Raye is before and this episode did not make me want to find out.

On 4/7/2024 at 1:01 AM, Galileo908 said:

Pilates: Pilates horror movie, this was a fun one.

Okay, this was the one exception to my verdict of not funny.  The only one.

Edited April 8 by proserpina65

[cinsays]

13 minutes ago, proserpina65 said:

That really was not funny from beginning to end.  Worst episode of the season so far, and that's saying a lot.  Even Weekend Update let me down.  Also I didn't know who Raye is before and this episode did not make me want to find out.

Okay, this was the one exception to my verdict of not funny.  The only one.

i totally agree, except that i also kind of liked kenan and the other guy doing the eclipse and earthquake bit, but then, i'd like anything with kenan just standing there doing one of his looks

[proserpina65]

1 minute ago, cinsays said:

i totally agree, except that i also kind of liked kenan and the other guy doing the eclipse and earthquake bit, but then, i'd like anything with kenan just standing there doing one of his looks

Yeah, that was funny too.

[wknt3]

20 hours ago, Pete Martell said:

A more detailed dress report:

I forgot the pre-tape soon after it aired, but Kaia Gerber has a number of SNL ties -...she dated Pete Davidson ...

Does that really count as an SNL tie at this point? I mean I think fewer people have taken the NBC Rockefeller Center tour...

[rmontro]

Has Kristen Wiig had plastic surgery or something?  She looked different to me, took longer to recognize her.  

Thought the show was better than last week.  I liked the Jumanji sketch.  Wiig has always taken a lot of flak on here, but I think she's all right.  I like her Surprise Sue character (which didn't  show up this week).

[heatherchandler]

1 hour ago, rmontro said:

Has Kristen Wiig had plastic surgery or something?  She looked different to me, took longer to recognize her.  

Thought the show was better than last week.  I liked the Jumanji sketch.  Wiig has always taken a lot of flak on here, but I think she's all right.  I like her Surprise Sue character (which didn't  show up this week).

It’s her upper lip, it’s upturned now.

I go back and forth on her.  Overall I like her but some characters are annoying.  Loved jumanji but that was because of Dismukes “jumanji in or jumanji out??!”

[rmontro]

15 hours ago, heatherchandler said:

It’s her upper lip, it’s upturned now.

Amazing that one lip can make that big of a difference.  I was wondering is she'd been Botox'd.  Wiig isn't my favorite cast member ever by any means, but I do like her.  I remember a lot of the criticism of her was that Lorne pushed her on the show harder than she merited.

[Pete Martell]

 

8 hours ago, rmontro said:

Amazing that one lip can make that big of a difference.  I was wondering is she'd been Botox'd.  Wiig isn't my favorite cast member ever by any means, but I do like her.  I remember a lot of the criticism of her was that Lorne pushed her on the show harder than she merited.

She seemed to be the only woman to get real focus for most of her last 4 or so years on the show (after Maya and Amy left), and a lot of the pieces she did were not in her best range (in my opinion). One of the reasons I thought she did well in this episode was because the pieces were closer to that more low-key feel she had in her first few seasons. 

I do think she's had her share of work done, although it wasn't as noticeable to me as some of her previous stints.

[Ottis]

On 4/7/2024 at 6:50 AM, baldryanr said:

So for those who have been yearning for a non-political cold opening, did this one do it for you?  I thought it sucked.  Yeah, Charles and Kenny aren't college BB guys, the women have been more exciting (or at the very least have bigger name stars), and Kim Mulkey dresses like a flamingo. 

Well, it was better than a political skit. The problem was they chose a topic whose point was no one cared about that topic, so it seemed meaningless both in meta and IRL.

A younger person in our house pointed out that Raye had performed a different arrangement on SNL of her songs, and played for us the original. This made me doubly impressed with Raye, because the originals sounded like another Cardi B/Rihanna clone and the SNL performances were much more unique and gorgeous. 

[EtheltoTillie]

On 4/7/2024 at 7:54 PM, Pete Martell said:

A more detailed dress report:

I forgot the pre-tape soon after it aired, but Kaia Gerber has a number of SNL ties - her mother (Cindy Crawford) did a cameo in 1994, she dated Pete Davidson, and she is playing Jacqueline Carlin in the upcoming SNL 1975 movie. Carlin was with Chevy Chase at the time (they later married - for a few years), and she starred in the show's very first pre-tape (the replacement dad commercial with Dan Aykroyd being replaced by Chevy Chase).

I don’t know if anyone else posted but Kaia is a cast member in Kristen’s Palm Royale show. 

[Quickbeam]

Toooo many guests. It was like a white man convention. I do adore Paula Pell and glad to see her getting recognition. 

[SoMuchTV]

As a parent who spent a not insignificant amount of time reading to kids in the 90s, I’m annoyed that there was no acknowledgement that Jumanji was a book before it was a movie(s). 

[SomeTameGazelle]

19 minutes ago, SoMuchTV said:

As a parent who spent a not insignificant amount of time reading to kids in the 90s, I’m annoyed that there was no acknowledgement that Jumanji was a book before it was a movie(s). 

Oh, that is too bad. Glancing at the Wikipedia description of the book, the moral seems to be that as long as you finish the game the "series of jungle emergencies" will end and your life returns to normal. I can see how that could also have been worked in as part of the lore, and how movies invariably differ from the source material.